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Onetime television pitchman Dell "Super Dell" Schanze, accused of harassing a migratory bird from a paraglider, has been scheduled for a change of plea hearing, new entries in the federal court record show.
Schanze is scheduled for a "plea and sentencing" at 2 p.m. on Thursday in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court before Judge Dee Benson, the court record shows.
As of Tuesday, no documents that outline the terms of any agreement had been filed with the court.
A message left by The Tribune for Schanze's federal public defender, Jamie Zenger, was not immediately returned Tuesday, and Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah, said she couldn't comment on the case until after Thursday's hearing.
A jury trial in the case had been set for April 20.
Schanze, 45, was charged in October 2014 with one count each of misdemeanor knowingly using an aircraft to harass wildlife and pursuing a migratory bird for a 2011 incident near Utah Lake that showed up in YouTube videos.
The charges followed a federal investigation into the online video, which surfaced in 2013 and appeared to show a paraglider pilot, later identified as Schanze, kicking a soaring barn owl and boasting about it.
Prosecutors believe the flight happened in February or March 2011.
At a hearing in December, Schanze entered not guilty pleas to both charges, but asked U.S. Magistrate Brooke Wells to dismiss his case, saying he believe the video had been doctored.
Schanze is well known for his local television ads for his business Totally Awesome Computers, which was shuttered in 2006.
After the business closed, Schanze ran unsuccessfully for governor and mayor of Saratoga Springs as a strong gun-rights advocate.